A

The Pseudocommando Mass

Murderer: Part I, The Psychology of
Revenge and Obliteration
James L. Knoll, IV, MD
The pseudocommando is a type of mass murderer who kills in public during the daytime, plans his offense well in
advance, and comes prepared with a powerful arsenal of weapons. He has no escape planned and expects to be
killed during the incident. Research suggests that the pseudocommando is driven by strong feelings of anger and
resentment, flowing from beliefs about being persecuted or grossly mistreated. He views himself as carrying out
a highly personal agenda of payback. Some mass murderers take special steps to send a final communication to the
public or news media; these communications, to date, have received little detailed analysis. An offenders use of
language may reveal important data about his state of mind, motivation, and psychopathology. Part I of this article
reviews the research on the pseudocommando, as well as the psychology of revenge, with special attention to
revenge fantasies. It is argued that revenge fantasies become the last refuge for the pseudocommandos mortally
wounded self-esteem and ultimately enable him to commit mass murder-suicide.
J Am Acad Psychiatry Law 38:8794, 2010

. . . to the last I grapple with thee; from hells heart I stab at

thee; for hates sake, I spit my last breath at thee. . . . Thus,
I give up the spear!Herman Melville [Ref. 1, p 154]
. . . All the [expletive] youve given me. Right back at you
with hollow points.Seung-Hui Cho2

The term pseudocommando was used by Dietz in

1986 to describe a type of mass murderer who plans
his actions after long deliberation (Ref. 3, p 482).
The pseudocommando often kills indiscriminately
in public during the daytime, but may also kill family
members and a pseudo-community he believes has
mistreated him.3 He comes prepared with a powerful
arsenal of weapons and has no escape planned. He
appears to be driven by strong feelings of anger and
resentment, in addition to having a paranoid character. Such persons are collectors of injustice3 who
nurture their wounded narcissism and retreat into a
Dr. Knoll is Director of Forensic Psychiatry and Associate Professor of
Psychiatry, SUNY Upstate Medical University, and Forensic Fellowship Director, Central New York Psychiatric Center, Syracuse, NY.
Address correspondence to: James L. Knoll, IV, MD, Division of
Forensic Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, SUNY Upstate Medical University, 750 East Adams Street, Syracuse, NY 13210. E-mail:
knollj@upstate.edu.
Disclosures of financial or other potential conflicts of interest: None.

fantasy life of violence and revenge. Mullen4 described the results of his detailed personal evaluations
of five pseudocommando mass murderers who were
caught before they could kill themselves or be killed.
He noted that the massacres were often well planned
(i.e., the offender did not snap), with the offenders
arriving at the crime scene heavily armed, often in
camouflage or warrior gear, and that they appeared to
be pursuing a highly personal agenda of payback to
an uncaring, rejecting world. Both Mullen and Dietz
have described this type of offender as a suspicious
grudge holder who is preoccupied with firearms.
Mass killings by such individuals are not new, nor
did they begin in the 1960s with Charles Whitman.
The news media tend to suggest that the era of mass
public killings was ushered in by Whitman atop the
tower at the University of Texas at Austin and have
become a part of American life in recent decades.5
Research indicates that the news media have heavily
influenced the public perception of mass murder,
particularly the erroneous assertion that its incidence
is increasing.6 Furthermore, it is typically the highprofile cases that represent the most widely publicized, yet least representative mass killings. As an

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The Pseudocommando Mass Murderer: Part I

Table 1 HomicideSuicide
Classification
Relationship motive
Relationship between victim and perpetrator (spousal, familial, etc.)
Motivation of perpetrator (jealousy, altruism, revenge, etc.)
Major patterns
Consortial-possessive
Most common type, accounting for 50% to 75% of all homicide-suicides. Involves a male recently estranged from his partner. Relationship
often characterized by domestic abuse, multiple separations, and reunions.
Consortial-physically ailing
The perpetrator is usually an elderly man in poor health, an ailing spouse, or both. Health problems have typically resulted in financial
difficulties. Depression is frequent. The motive may involve altruism or despair about the future. Suicide notes are often left describing an
inability to cope with poor health and finances.
Filicide-suicide
About 40% to 60% of fathers and 16% to 29% of mothers commit suicide immediately after murdering their children. An infant is more
likely to be killed by the mother. A mother who kills a neonate is unlikely to commit suicide. Further subtypes of filicide-suicide are based
on motives such as psychosis, altruism, and revenge.
Familicide-suicide
Committed by a depressed senior man of the household. Associated precipitating stressors include marital problems, finances, or workrelated problems. He may view his action as an altruistic delivery of his family from continued hardships. He may also suspect marital
infidelity and be misusing substances.
Adversarial Homicide-Suicide (extrafamilial)
Involves a disgruntled ex-employee, a bullied student, or a resentful, paranoid Ioner. He externalizes blame onto others and feels wronged
in some way. He is likely to have depression and exhibit paranoid and/or narcissistic traits. Occasionally, he may experience actual
persecutory delusions. He uses a powerful arsenal of weapons and has no escape planned.
Adapted from Marzuk et al.12

example that such mass murderers have existed long

before Whitman, consider a notorious case, the Bath
School disaster of 1927, now long forgotten by
most.7 Andrew Kehoe lived in Michigan in the late
1920s. He struggled with serious financial problems,
and his wife suffered from tuberculosis. He appeared
to focus his unhappiness and resentment on a local
town conflict having to do with a property tax being
levied on a school building. After becoming utterly
overwhelmed with resentment and hatred, Kehoe
killed his wife, set his farm ablaze, and killed some 45
individuals by setting off a bomb in the school building. Kehoe himself was killed in the blast, but he left
a final communication on a wooden sign outside his
property that read: Criminals are made, not
borna statement suggestive of externalization of
blame and long-held grievance.
Mass Murder: A Subtype of
Homicide-Suicide
Homicide-suicide (H-S) is the phenomenon in
which an individual commits a homicide and subsequently (usually within 24 hours) commits suicide.8 10 H-S is a distinct category of homicide with
features that differ from those of other forms of killing. It is a rare event, estimated to occur at a rate of
88

between 0.2 and 0.38 per 100,000 persons annually.9,11 Most homicide-suicides are carefully planned
by the perpetrator as a two-stage, sequential act. Marzuk et al.12 proposed classifying H-S by the relationship the perpetrator had to the victim (e.g., spousal,
familial), along with the perpetrators motive (e.g.,
jealousy, altruism, revenge). Table 1 lists the major
H-S patterns discussed in the research literature,
along with brief descriptions.
Of the five major H-S types, the consortial-possessive type is the most common, accounting for 50 to
75 percent of all homicide-suicides. Less common is
the adversarial (also called extrafamilial) type of H-S.
The pseudocommando mass murderer described by
Dietz3 and the perpetrator of the analogous autogenic massacre described by Mullen4 would best fit
into this category. Variants of this type of H-S include disgruntled (ex-)employees, students, patients,
and litigants. The pseudocommando subtype of
mass murder may be considered a H-S, as the perpetrator goes to the offense expecting not only to kill,
but also to be killed, sometimes by his own hand.
Since he has no escape planned and may also force
police to kill him, certain cases may culminate in
so-called suicide by cop.13 Technically, an adversarial
H-S following the pseudocommando pattern is only

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Knoll

considered a mass murder if the perpetrator kills four

or more victims at one location, within one event.14
For mass murderers in general, the literature does not
reflect a strong link with serious mental illness.15
Rather, retrospective analyses of cases suggest that,
while mass murderers may have illnesses such as depression, it is rare for them to have psychosis.16
In his case studies of five pseudocommando-type
mass murderers who were apprehended alive,
Mullen4 described several traits and historical factors
that these individuals had in common. In particular,
they were bullied or isolated as children, turning into
loners who felt despair over being socially excluded.
They were generally suspicious, resentful grudge
holders who demonstrated obsessional or rigid traits.
Narcissistic, grandiose traits were also present, along
with heavy use of externalization. They held a worldview of others being generally rejecting and uncaring.
As a result, they spent a great deal of time feeling
resentful and ruminating over past humiliations.
Such ruminations invariably evolved into fantasies
about violent revenge. Mullen noted that the offenders seemed to welcome death, even perceiving it as
bringing them fame with an aura of power. Since
most of the literature on the pseudocommando
heavily references the offenders motivation of revenge, a more in-depth analysis of the psychology of
revenge may be helpful.
The Psychology of Revenge
He piled upon the whales hump the sum of all the general
rage and hate . . . and then, as if his chest had been a mortar,
he burst his hot hearts shell upon it.Herman Melville
[Ref. 1, p 154]

The desire for revenge is a ubiquitous response to

narcissistic injury (Ref. 17, p 447). It should be of
interest that an emotion so intense and pervasive has
received little study relative to other emotions. Both
psychoanalysis18 and forensic psychiatry have merely
skimmed the psychological surface of this destructive
cognition. Yet consider how revenge hides in plain
sight. For example, Greek mythology is awash in
revenge themes.18 Revenge is the central motive in at
least 20 of Shakespeares plays and is a main theme in
many of todays Hollywood movies. The success of
movies such as the Death Wish series, and more recently the Kill Bill series, speaks to the publics fascination with, and indeed their delight in, the sweet
taste of payback.19 That there is a strong, primal
universality of the revenge theme hardly requires in-

depth socioanthropological study. Across almost every culture, the taking of revenge, when justified,
has assumed the status of a sacred obligation (Ref.
20, p 199). In many cultures, since biblical times and
before, there has always been the principle of retributive functional symmetry, such as the admonition
of an eye for an eye in the Hebrew Bible.
Human aggression, as an expression of revenge,
may be traced back to a psychophysiological response
designed to enhance survival.21 At this stage of our
evolution, affronts to our self-esteem or narcissism
are responded to as though they were a threat to our
survival (Ref. 22, p 123). We have maintained the
physiological hard-wiring that is available for excessive use in situations that do not involve survival of
the body, but survival of the ego. The egos survival
instinct may become transformed into a striving for
an enduring sense of self which is an object of value in
a field of social meanings (Ref. 23, p 23). Because
the self or ego must be defined in the social-meaning
field, it is the Other on whom we depend for our
highly valued identity. The individual whose ego is
fragile or damaged may nurture destructive rage toward the Other that eventually transforms him into
an avenger. Indeed, it is the frustration of the need to
preserve a solid sense of self, that is often the
source of the most fanatical human violence [as well
as] the everyday anger that all of us suffer (Ref. 23, p
85).
Yet vengeful rage provides only pseudopower, as it
is merely a reaction to intolerable feelings of powerlessness and humiliation. Nevertheless, there comes a
point when this pseudopower is the only defense the
avenger has left to ward off the annihilation of his
identity. For this reason, when the potential avengers ego is threatened or hurt in such a devastating
way . . . the only thing that remains is to persist in
the unremitting denunciation of injustice (Ref.
24, p 189). For certain individuals, there is no turning back or giving up on the crusade, because there
is a perverse honor in refusing to normalize the
perceived injustice. Herein lies the hidden logic of
the . . . avenger (Ref. 23, pp 83 4): to sustain a perversely heroic refusal to compromise, an insistence
against all odds, lest his heroic fantasy surrender to
the reality of a self (or lack thereof) that he finds
intolerable (Ref. 24, p 190).
The psychotherapy literature on revenge suggests
that fantasized revenge is a familiar cognition in daily
life. In the treatment of various stress response syn-

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The Pseudocommando Mass Murderer: Part I

dromes, clinicians may encounter intrusive and persistent thoughts of vengeance associated with feelings
of rage at perpetrators (Ref. 25, p 24). While the
revenge fantasies often have the emotional content of
hate and fear, the fear may easily devolve into frank
paranoia. Of relevance to the pseudocommando is
the research evidence suggesting that strong anger
can serve as an attention-focusing emotion, making
it difficult to think about other things.26 Angry
thoughts thus generate a vicious cycle; the more he
thinks about them the angrier he gets, and the angrier
he gets, the harder it is to think about anything else
(Ref. 26, p 1317). Thus, a pseudocommandos revenge fantasy may prevent him from engaging other
strategies (e.g., trivialization) that would have allowed [him] to move on and think about something
else (Ref. 26, p 1323).
For the pseudocommando, revenge fantasies are
inflexible and persistent because they provide desperately needed sustenance to his self-esteem. He is able
to feel better by gaining a sense of (pseudo) power
and control by ruminating on, and finally planning
out his vengeance. Consider the pictures of SeungHui Cho (Virginia Tech) released by the media in
which he is dressed in various warrior outfits (e.g.,
flack jacket, black clothing, ammo belts). Next, consider the fact that he had to shop for and purchase
these items and possibly try them onall the while
imagining how he would use them and how he
would look in them. These fantasies may lead the
avenger to experience pleasure at imagining the suffering of the target and pride at being on the side of
some spiritual primal justice (Ref. 25, p 25). Thus,
the revenge fantasy falsely promises a powerful remedy to the pseudocommandos shattered ego. It
gives the illusion of strength, and a temporary,
though false, sense of restored control and
self-coherence.25
The type of severe narcissistic rage experienced by
the pseudocommando serves the purpose of the
preservation of the self (Ref. 22, p 124) that has
exceeded its limit of shame, rejection, and aversive
self-awareness. This pain and rage cannot be contained, and he ultimately embarks on a course of
self-destruction that transfers [his] pain to others
(Ref. 22, p 128). It may ultimately be the intensity
and quality of the revenge fantasies, acting in concert
with other risk variables, that contribute to whether
vengefulness will be a passing concern or a lifelong
quest (Ref. 17, p 449). Dietz3 has described these
90

individuals as collectors of injustice who hold onto

every perceived insult, amassing a pile of evidence
that they have been grossly mistreated. Why might
they so faithfully stockpile this collection? I argue
that it serves the purpose of sustaining their revenge
romance. The collection is reassembled into the form
of an enemy who deserves to be the target of a
merciless, incendiary rage. Thus, the pseudocommando maintains object relations with others that
are based heavily on envy and splitting, as their collection is likely to consist of the unwanted, hated, or
feared aspects of themselves. A more intense desire
for revenge may signal a more intense idealization of
the hated object(s). Targets of a very intense desire
for revenge must be made out to be worthy of their
fate, which is why we may see the pseudocommando portray his victims as barely worthy of being
considered human, much as Mr. Cho portrayed
other students (whom he hardly knew) as hedonistic brats who had raped his soul. Yet at the same
time, he must view himself as blame free, thereby
completing the other half of the splitting and projection dynamic.
We are now at a point where we can summarize
some of the main psychic functions that the
pseudocommandos fantasy of revenge serves:
It provides sadistic gratification, and perhaps
has an evolutionary basis (Ref. 18, p 608).
It helps the pseudocommando obliterate an intolerable reality and aversive self-awareness. His
rumination dominates thought and impels action much as an addiction or erotomania does
(Ref. 18, p 605). He could be said to have
fallen into romantic/idealized hate. When
Captain Ahab believed he had been dismasted
by the whale, he reached the final stages of narcissistic inaccessibility and plunged irretrievably
into a romanticized downward spiral of realitydestroying nihilism and death. The revenge fantasy serves as a defense against feelings of shame,
loss, and powerlessness. In this way, revenge is
an attempt to restore the grandiose self (Ref. 18,
p 605). It allows the pseudocommandos omnipotence to rise triumphantly (in his fantasy) from
the ashes of shame and vulnerability.
It maintains the status quo of the pseudocommandos primitive object relations, which are
based heavily on envy and splitting.

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The peril associated with these revenge dynamics

is that they inexorably collide with reality in such a
way as to render the defenses ineffectual. Reality ultimately creeps into his life in various ways, threatening him with aversive self-awareness and requiring
him to feed the monsterthat is, to cultivate stronger, more intense feelings of persecution and hostility
toward his victims. Once this process becomes well
entrenched, the pseudocommando begins to tread
down the path of cognitive deconstruction, nihilism,
and death.
Pseudocommando Psychodynamics:
Persecution, Envy, and Nihilism
They do me wrong, and I will not endure it. . . . I must be
held a rancorous enemy.Richard III27

Having discussed how the pseudocommandos

wish for revenge represents his struggle to restore a
damaged identity, I now focus on the developmental psychodynamics observed in many offenders who
also have strong paranoid and narcissistic traitsin
particular, those who cling to the position of the
aggrieved victim, despite overwhelming evidence
that their own actions have placed them in their unpleasant situation. These offenders may become stagnated in their own self-pity, anger, and persecutory
ruminations. It is possible that the harsh early childhoods that some of these offenders endured contributed to their impaired ability to trust others as an
adult, leaving them with a strongly self-centered,
paranoid character.28 According to developmental
theory, a healthier developmental course necessitates
the transition away from what Klein29 called the
persecutory position, toward the depressive position. The study of violent offenders suggests, according to this theory, that impediments to psychological development cause the offender to become
relatively fixed in a persecutory developmental stage,
or what Klein called the paranoid-schizoid position.30 In this stage, most of the individuals worldview is based on feelings of mistreatment and frustration at what is perceived as intentional harm or
purposeful withholding of gratification. Fixation at
this stage is associated with the use of more primitive
defense mechanisms, such as splitting, externalization, and projective identification. In contrast, the
offender who has reached the depressive position has
developed the capacity for feelings of concern that he
has injured or destroyed some aspect of society (e.g.,
his fellow human beings). Cognitions associated

with the depressive position include regret, empathy

with the victim, and interest in making reconciliation with society.
The persecutory cognitions of the offender in the
paranoid-schizoid position are experienced as threatening, undeserved attacks on his self. This response is
of interest, in that Dietz noted that most men in the
United States who have killed 10 or more victims in
a single incident have demonstrated paranoid symptoms of some kind (Ref. 3, p 480). Consistent with
their feelings of being persecuted, such offenders may
also have strong feelings of destructive envy. As regards envy, it is important to note that the offender at
the paranoid-schizoid stage is not necessarily envious
of the Others possessions or social status, but the
way in which the Other appears to be able to enjoy
these things. Thus, the offenders true goal is to
destroy the Others ability/capacity to enjoy the
prized object or status (Ref. 24, p 90). For example,
in his manifesto, Mr. Cho chides other students in
keeping with his perception that they possessed everything they ever wanted, such as Mercedes . . . ,
golden necklaces . . . , trust fund[s] . . . , vodka and
cognac.31 Yet in the same manifesto, he reveals his
powerful envy, stating: Oh the happiness I could
have had mingling among you hedonists, being
counted as one of you, if only you didnt [expletive]
the living [expletive] out of me.31 Via projection,
such individuals perceive others as persecutory, as
well as withholding the goodness and happiness to
which they are entitled. Similar cognitions were reported by the pseudocommandos evaluated by
Mullen.4 They were described as suspicious individuals with strong feelings of persecution and mistreatment, who harbored resentment over past social
rejections.
Alternatively, the depressive position allows the
individual to confront reality more smoothly. It involves the capacity for feelings of responsibility, guilt,
and concern over harm done to others. During longterm incarceration, some offenders may eventually
take up pursuits suggestive of attempts to negotiate
the depressive phase. For example, a man sentenced
to life for murder may become involved in running
the prison lifers group, or take up creative pursuits
such as art, music, or poetryall examples of reparative activities.30 Unfortunately, some offenders may
be unable to achieve an attitude embracing personal
accountability and reconciliation. In particular,
some go on to develop remarkably fixed, chronic

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feelings of persecution. Clinical observations suggest

that some of these offenders ultimately develop an
entrenched nihilistic attitude. Nihilism then pervades their cognitions about treatment and life in
general. The risk here is that their failure to find
meaning in life may result in feelings of hopelessness,
self-defeating actions, and suicidality.32 Thus, it may
be hypothesized that once the offender reaches some
individual-specific level of nihilism, he will demonstrate a significantly reduced ability to benefit from
efforts designed to extend help and will have little
motivation to self-regulate his behavior. These empirical observations of the adverse effects of social
rejection and nihilistic beliefs in incarcerated offenders are consistent with research findings in nonincarcerated populations. For example, social rejection
has been found in normal subjects to increase feelings
of meaninglessness, decrease self-awareness, and impair behavioral self-regulation.33,34
Social science research has shown that when nihilism and the drive to avoid painful self-awareness become strong enough, there is a significantly increased
risk of suicide and self-destructive behavior.35 This
theory has been called the escape theory of suicide,
to denote the suicidal individuals motivation to escape aversive self-awareness. According to the escape
theory, when the individual is unable to avoid negative affect and painful self-awareness, a process of
cognitive deconstruction occurs in which he rejects
meaning and descends into hopelessness, irrationality, and disinhibition. Suicide then becomes the ultimate step in the effort to escape awareness and its
implications about the self. Applying this theory to
the psychology of the pseudocommando, the stage of
cognitive deconstruction seems to signal a potentially
deadly turning point. Having tried and failed to place
his painful self-awareness outside himself, he redoubles his efforts to externalize. These efforts merely
return to him as even more powerful persecutory
attacks from outside. In select individuals, this reaction may culminate in a real-life physical attack directed outward to avoid what is within. For the
pseudocommando laboring under a heavy burden of
persecutory ideas and negative affect, consciousness
of his true predicament is self-torment. Because he
is a conscious being, reality will eventually permeate
the fault lines of his defenses. Clear contemplation of
his predicament is the equivalent of an unending
suicidea painful assault by reality, combined with
his own persecutory attacks. His existence has be92

come the progressive self-destruction of a subject

given over to a condition of catastrophic fear, rage,
and despair.
The Obliterative State of Mind
Shakespeares Richard III is a classic illustration of
a mind committed to revenge and driven by powerful
grievance. His state of mind may be regarded as obliterative, in that it functions to spread more grievance,
destruction, and ultimately, annihilation.36 Such individuals may come to embrace a self-styled image
based on low self-esteem or negative self-perceptions
that may be tinged with an ominous or threatening
undertone. That is, they embrace their dark, negative
cognitions and fashion them into a recognizable suit
of black armor. Just as Richard III defined himself by
his own deformity, so Mr. Cho defined himself by
his outcast status even calling himself the question mark kid. Thus, persons driven by envy and
destruction tend to see others as in the light and
[choose] to stay in the dark . . . (Ref. 36, p 702). In
the case of Richard III, envy and destructive narcissism led him to the conscious adoption of the role of
reprobate:
And therefore, since I cannot prove a lover,
To entertain these fair well-spoken days,
I am determined to prove a villain,
And hate the idle pleasures of these days.27

Toxic levels of envy and narcissism . . . can fracture the personality, hold it hostage and in thrall, by
being fuelled by triumph and contempt . . . (Ref.
36, p 703). The developing pseudocommando must
hold fast to his hatred of anything such as growth,
beauty, or humanity which is an advance over a
bleak, static interior landscape (Ref. 36, p 710).
Note, however, that there is still another important
psychological motive behind Richards decision to
prove a villain. Specifically, it is his belief that Nature has done me a grievous wrong . . . . Life owes me
reparation for this . . . . I have a right to be an exception, to disregard the scruples by which others let
themselves be held back. I may do wrong myself,
since wrong has been done to me (Ref. 37, pp 314
15). It is this feeling of being an exception to the rule,
of being entitled to harm others or break societal
laws, that fuels the pseudocommandos obliterative
state of mind. Once he has embraced this mindset, he
condemns himself to a mental space in which he
cannot envision rescue from this commitment to a
killing field externally or internally (Ref. 36, p 709).

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The narcissistic injury, which is utterly intolerable, is

essentially nihilistic: nothing matters, all is despair . . . all goodness and substance are obliterated,
so that nothingness defines the domain (Ref. 36, p
710). This is the obliterative mindset destroy everything, embrace nothingness.
Such an individual needs a mental sanctuary
from the oppressive, relentless nihilism that assails
him. It is only from such a sanctuary that he has hope
of achieving greater mental clarity and freedom from
persecution, reclaiming the notion of the Others potential goodness, and relinquishing his pseudoempowering revenge fantasies. Sadly, it is the case that
some individuals may never be able to relinquish the
Ahab-Richard III state of mind, as all attempts at
empathy may be met with suspicion, defensiveness,
and contempt. At this point, the individual is unable
or unwilling to re-emerge from his heroic fantasy
of justified, honorable revenge. As the pseudocommando comes closer to turning fantasy into reality,
he must undergo a process by which he comes to
accept that he will be sacrificing his own life. It may
be that this obstacle is easier for him to overcome
when his catastrophic thinking leads him to believe
violent homicide-suicide is his only option, and his
obliterative mindset causes him to feel that his self is
already dead. The death of his physical body is simply
an inevitability of little consequence. These cognitions will eliminate his capacity for undistorted judgment, finding meaning in life, and sublimating aggression. Now he is able to override his survival
instinct and reach the point of willingness to sacrifice ones body (Ref. 38, p 73).
Once the pseudocommando reaches the stage of
genuine willingness to sacrifice himself, he becomes a
vortex into which all data are taken and reconfigured
to substantiate the grounds of the revenge fantasy. At
some individualized point, the pseudocommando
makes the decision to bring his revenge fantasies into
the daylight of reality. He also begins to formulate his
final communications. These communications have
great meaning to him, as he realizes that they will be
the only living testament to his motivations, struggle,
and heroic sacrifice. He pulls the words from deep
within his shattered psyche and carefully spreads
them out for all to see. Like a poker player who lays
down his royal flush, he reveals his hate-filled, obliterative hand to the shock and lament of all who bare
witness.

Conclusions
Mass murders have occurred since well before the
Whitman shooting in 1966. What constitutes a more
modern twist on mass murder is the pseudocommando-style shootings, as first described by Dietz3
and more recently by Mullen.4 Present day access to
powerful automatic firearms, as well as glorification
of the phenomenon by the media are two factors
making modern mass murders unique.
This article has presented a discussion of the psychology of revenge, focusing on revenge fantasies in
pseudocommando mass murderers. These individuals nurture feelings of persecution, resentment, and
destructive envy. When the pseudocommando has
reached the limit of his ability to avoid painful selfawareness, his revenge fantasy becomes his last refuge
until he achieves a willingness to sacrifice himself.
Part II will demonstrate how the final communications of pseudocommandos are rich sources
of data regarding their individual motives and
psychopathology.
Editors Note
Part II of this article will be published in Volume 38, Issue 2 of
the Journal. It will explore and analyze the final communications of
two recent pseudocommandos: Seung-Hui Cho (Virginia Tech)
and Jiverly Wong (Binghamton, NY).

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